I've never installed X-Plane outside of Steam.
There are things i like and dislike about Steam, but their content delivery is usually pretty good.
That said i usually try to avoid Steam as it seems they take a massive cut of sales, but in my case when it came time to buy XP11 it was cheaper on steam.
Laminar Research has released X-Plane 10.45 RC-1 to the wild.
As per their release, "X-Plane 10.45 is a “small” patch for us in that it doesn’t contain major changes to the code, but it contains a number of features you might like."
Changes include:
An update to the global airports.
The global airports won’t conflict with custom scenery – new exclusion technology prevents overlapping buildings.
Nav data has been significantly updated – lots of bug fixes are in 10.45.
The GPS data for the G430 now contains IAFs, so you can fly GPS approaches with proper transitions.
Proper prop torque for aircraft that opt in.